The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
SOUTHFIELD, Mich.
Gov. Snyder lays
out plans for better
roads, Internet
Gov. Rick Snyder wants to try
a new way of taxing gasoline and
diesel fuel to raise the money
needed to fix roads and bridges.
He laid out his plan for improv-
ing Internet access, roads, water
and sewer systems and regional
transit during a policy address
yesterday at Lawrence Techno-
logical University.
He suggested several ways that
the state could raise more money
for roads, such as increasing
vehicle registration fees by $10 a
month, which would raise $1 bil-
lion more a year. He wants to let
local governments raise their own
fees to fix local streets.
Snyder says no one wants high-
er taxes, but that more investment
is needed to help the state's eco-
nomic recovery, noting that "bet-
ter roads drive better jobs."
He also supports rapid transit
in southeast Michigan.
SANTA ANA, Calif.
Doctor arrested
for prescribing
drugs at Starbucks
A Southern California doctor
has been indicted on charges of
illegally prescribing drugs to so-
called patients at nightly meet-
ings in Starbucks stores.
Federal prosecutors say
43-year-old Alvin Mingczech
Yee was arrested Tuesday night
at his office in Irvine and is due
in court yesterday.
Prosecutors say Yee saw up to
a dozen patients nightly at Star-
bucks coffee stores across subur-
ban Orange County at meetings
that cost up to $600. Prosecutors
say Yee barely examined them
but prescribed drugs including
OxyContin and Vicodin.
Prosecutors say a federal
grand jury indicted Yee on 50
counts of illegal distribution of
a contriolled substance and six
counts of illegal distribution to a
minor, which under federal law
is under age 21.
WASHINGTON
U.S. reaches out
to Iranians, warns
Iran government
The Obama administration
is setting up an Internet-based
embassy to reach out to Iranians
hoping to broaden their under-
standing of the United States,
while at the same time studying
new sanctions to raise the pres-
sure on Iran's government over
its disputed nuclear program and
alleged ties to terrorism.
Secretary of State Hillary Rod-
ham Clinton said in interviews
yesterday with Persian-language
media that the U.S. wanted to
affirm its friendship to the Ira-
nian people even at a time of ris-
ing tensions with the regime in
Tehran. As part of that effort, she
said a "virtual embassy in Teh-
ran" will be online by the end of
the year, helping Iranians wish-
ing to travel or study in the Unit-
* ed States.
BEIJING
China says it will
launch unmanned
space mission
China says it will launch an
unmanned spacecraft early next
month that will attempt to dock
with an experimental space sta-
tion module.
The Shenzhou 8 mission is
the latest step in what will be
a decade-long effort to place a
manned permanent space station
in orbit.
The official Xinhua News Agen-
cy said Wednesday that the ship
will carry out a series of maneu-
vers to couple with the Tiangong
1 module that was launched late
last month and has been func-
tioning as expected. It cited the
launch center's chief engineer, Lu
Jinrong.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Arab delegation
says Syria eager
to end crisis
A tearn leader for a U.S. Special Operations Cultural Support Team, hands out utensils during a women's shura in the
village of Oshay, Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, May 4, 2011. With the support of U.S. special operation forces, the CST
and Female Treatment Team are working closely together in ordernto bring health education to women in the area.
Death highlights women's
role in1 Special Ops team--s
Women soldiers
crucial asset in
Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Army 1st Lt. Ashley White died
on the front lines in southern
Afghanistan last weekend, the
first casualty in what the Army
says is a new and vital wartime
attempt to gain the trust of
Afghan women.
White, like other female
soldiers working with special
operations teams, was brought
in to do things that would be
awkward or impossible for
her male teammates. Frisking
burqa-clad women, for exam-
ple.
Her death, in a bomb explo-
sion in the Taliban heartland of
Kandahar, underscores the risks
of placing women with elite U.S.
special operations teams work-
ing in remote villages.
Military leaders and other
female soldiers in the program
say its rewards are great, even
as it fuels debate over the roles
of women in combat.
"We could do things that the
males cannot do, and they are
starting to realize that," says
Sgt. Christine Baldwin, who
like White was among the first
groups of women deployed to
Afghanistan this year as spe-
cially trained "cultural sup-
port" troops.
Male soldiers often cannot
even speak to an Afghan woman
because of the strict cultural
norms that separate the sexes
and the tradition of women
remaining behind closed doors
most of the time. Forcing the
issue has yielded only resent-
ment, military officials say, and
has jeopardized the trust and
cooperation of villagers. From
the start of the war 10 years ago,
Afghans have especially resent-
ed the practice of "night raids"
in which male foreign soldiers
enter and search homes, the
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RESTAURANT
traditional sanctum of women.
"We could search the female,
find out the other half of the
information," Baldwin said in
an interview. "If you're missing
half of the lay of the land, how
effective are you in engaging
the populace?"
Thatcquestion was eight years
in the making. It arose from the
frustration of U.S. command-
ers who realized two years ago
that as they tried to apply the
principles of counterinsur-
gency - protect civilians and
enlist them to reject insurgents
and provide intelligence - they
weren't reaching the majority
of the Afghan population.
Now, the first female sol-
diers are serving in commando
units. They are trained to fer-
ret out critical information not
available to their male team
members, to identify insurgents
disguised as women and figure
out when Afghan women are
being used to hide weapons.
U.S. women have been on
the front lines in Afghanistan
since the war began, and over
time they have been used to
reach out to the Afghan popula-
tion through health care initia-
tives and other programs. They
have traveled with Army sol-
diers and Marines throughout
the warfront, often to assist in
development projects or as part
of psychological operations -
what are now called MIS, or
military information support
operations.
But as elite special opera-
tions teams fanned out across
the country doing counter-
insurgency "stability opera-
tions" in the small villages, they
complained to their superiors
that they weren't reaching the
women and children who make
up as much as71percent of the
population.
'We waited too long to get
to this," says Command Sgt.
Maj. Ledford Stigall. "We had
a lot of people focused on the
kill and capture, and it really
took someone to say, hey it's not
about kill, capture, it's about
developing a country that can
take care of itself."
"Women have a voice," he
said. "They can influence the
men in their society."
In 2009, under pressure
from Gen. Stanley McChrystal,
then the top U.S. commander
in Afghanistan, and Gen. David
Petraeus, then the top U.S. com-
mander in the Middle East, the
Army began to develop Cultural
Support Teams.
Last November, the first
group of women went through
a grueling five-day assessment
that tested their physical and
military skills, their problem-
solving and writing abilities and
their psychological and men-
tal fitness. Those that passed
moved on to a six-week training
program.
And in January, the first
group of 28 women deployed to
Afghanistan with Army Rang-
ers and Special Forces teams.
They went in two-woman
teams as part of larger spe-
cial operations units - usually
numbering about a dozen. And
they were designed to go out
on patrols and into the villages
with the special operators to
help build relations with the
communities by engaging with
the Afghan women.
In the process, they could
also glean valuable intelligence
about the people in the region,
information they might not be
able to get from the men.
Capt. Adrienne Bryant was in
the first group that deployed.
Down in Helmand Province
with a team of Marine special
operations forces, Bryant said,
the initial response from the
population was tepid.
Protest leaders
refuse to talk with
Syrian government
BEIRUT (AP) - Arab officials
held a "frank and friendly" meet-
ing with Syrian President Bashar
Assad yesterday, the head of the
delegation said at the beginning
of a regional effort to resolve a
bloody 7-month revolt, the most
serious challenge yet to the four
decade Assad dynasty.
The Arab committee is trying
to start talks between Assad's gov-
ernment and its opponents, but
protest leaders reject any dialogue
with the regime while it contin-
ues its brutal crackdown, which
the U.N. says has killed more than
3,000 people since March.
Activists said at least 15 civil-
ians were killed yesterday in
military operations across the
country, 12 of them in the flash-
point central city of Homs.
The meeting in Damascus
between the Arab ministerial
committee and Assad came hours
after tens of thousands of Syrians
packed a main square in the Syr-
ian capital, chanting, "the people
want Bashar Assad." Assad suc-
ceeded his father, andtogethercthe
family has ruled Syria for more
than 40 years.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheik
Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al
Thani was quoted as saying that
the Arab delegation felt that the
Syrian government is eager to
work with the Arab committee "in
order to reach a solution."
Sheik Hamad told reporters
that the Arab committee and
the Syrian government will hold
another meeting on Sunday either
in Syria or in Qatar.
"What is important for us is
that there are no victims from any
side in Syria," Sheik Hamad told
reporters. "The fighting should
stop and the dialogue should
begin between the Syrian broth-
ers so that, God willing, they
agree on points that fulfill people
demands."
Syria has rejected previous
Arab initiatives, and it was not
clear if this would be different, or
if the regime was trying to gain
time to tryto crush the uprising.
The Arab officials' visit follows
a meeting in Cairo last week by
the 22-nation Arab League, which
gave Syria until the end of the
month to end military operations,
release detainees arrested in the
crackdown, and start a dialogue
with the opposition.
Human Rights Watch quoted
Syrian activists as saying at least
186 protesters and residents have
been killed in Syria sincethe Cairo
meeting.
The activists said towns and
villages in southern and central
Syria as well as some areas in
the north and east, closed their
businesses in compliance with an
opposition call for a general strike.
Amateur videos showed shops
closed in different parts of the
country as well as counter-dem-
onstrations to the one held in
Damascus. One of the largestctook
place in the village of Halfaya in
the central province of Hama.
A giant banner raised on an
electricity pole there read: "To the
Arab League. How do you want us
to have a dialogue with the killer of
children and women when all laws
say that the killer should not be
negotiated with, but putcon trial?"
The Syrian government has
staunchly defended its crackdown
on protesters, saying it is the tar-
get of a foreign conspiracy.
Bassma Kodmani, spokeswom-
an for the broad-based opposition
group, the Syrian National Coun-
cil, said it is "impossible" to talk
about a dialogue within the cur-
rent security crackdown.
"And even if the right conditions
for'dialogue prevail, the only thing
to discuss would be a roadmap for
the peaceful transfer of power?'
she told The Associated Press.
"Russia gives Bashar inter-
national protection, Iran gives
him weapons, and Arabs give
him time," read a banner carried
by protesters in northern Syria
Tuesday evening. "No dialogue
with the killer of children," read
another.
Human Rights Watch called
on the Arab ministers to demand
that the government allow inde-
pendent, civilian monitors into
Syria to observe the behavior of
security forces.
In a pro-government rally timed
to coincide with the Arab minis-
ters'visit, tens of thousands of Syr-
ians carrying white, red and black
flags and posters of Assad gathered
at Damascus' Omayyad square.
The opposition says authorities
regularly stage suchrallies in sup-
tort of the embattled leader.
Assad still has significant sup-
port among Syrians, including
those who benefited financially
from the regime, minority groups
who fear they will be targeted
if the Sunni majority takes over,
and others who see no clear and
safe alternative to the president.
He also still has the loyalty of the
bulk of the armed forces, key to
his remaining in power.
The British-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights
and other rights groups said 15
civilians were killed Wednes-
day in shootings by security
forces nationwide, including 12
in the rebellious city of Homs.
The Observatory also reported
11 soldiers were killed in Hama
province when the bus they were
traveling in was hit by a rocket
propelled grenade.
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